Thursday, January 22, 2009

Employees: IBM layoffs to happen in three-day wave

IBM employees fear the worst as Friday, Tuesday and Wednesday actions near

The workers, who requested anonymity, say “a huge layoff” will come in three waves – office workers and engineers on Friday, and factory workers on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Alliance@IBM, the union-backed group representing Big Blue employees, was also flooded on Wednesday with reports of job cuts at sites nationwide.

“Austin, (North Carolina’s) Research Triangle Park, and the Boston area, pretty much all over the country,” said national coordinator Lee Conrad. “We expect further cuts the rest of the week and next week.”

The widely anticipated resource action was hinted at during IBM’s buoyant earnings announcement Tuesday, when Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge said 2009 would bring an “acceleration” of “workforce rebalancing” during the first quarter.

“The Systems Technology Group is going to get hit,” Conrad said, referring to plants in East Fishkill and Burlington, Vt.